Safe Protection Levels - The Big Locking Bolt Scam

Large Locking Bolts look Impressive...but Looks Can Be Decieving.

The illusion of a robust safe - The number of locking bolts on the door of a safe and the size of these locking bolts can be an indicator of that safe's ability to protect from pry attacks. However, how far the locking bolts protrude into the door and their arrangement is the key to resisting the leverage applied by a burglar attempting to wedge the door open. Some safes masquerade as a high-security safe with oversized locking bolts, but in truth those large looking locking bolts are only for show.

This particular trick is employed so rampantly throughout the safe industry that it merits its own page in this guide. Though the trick is most common in mid level safes, it can even be found in certain high end luxury safes.

Take for instance the fine looking robust safe featured here. This is a top of the line luxury safe equipped with fine hardwood jewelry drawers, an advanced electronics package, and brass trim. This safe sells for well over 60 thousand dollars.

But is a safe this finely constructed worthy of such a grand expenditure?

The massively thick fortified door coupled with five HUGE two inch diameter locking bolts would suggest so. A very impressive looking safe indeed.

Such a splendid safe deserves closer inspection.

Grand looking locking bolts, but lets look deeper

Closer inspection leads to uneasy questions - Upon unfastening this luxury safe's polished door cover, certain oddities become readily apparent.
Where do the HUGE bolts go? We can plainly see them going into the side of the door's bolt carriage, but there is no sign of the bolts continuing through into the door's inner housing area.

In their place there appears to be a lot of empty space occupying the majority of this door's perceived massiveness. The only solid filled area is the front panel, but how can they manage to stuff the protective steel plating and the firewall material into such a thin layer of space? That's not really possible is it? Perhaps this copious empty space better explains the safe's markedly low weight.
There are many things here that just aren't adding up. This calls for an even closer look.

Grand looking locking bolts, but lets look deeper

The Scam revealed - From this vantage point we can clearly see this safe is in fact critically flawed.

Not only do those massive locking bolts terminate just inside the door's cover, but they're held in place by miniscule ¼" bolts and an extremely thin bolt carriage.

Plus, the bolts pass through the carriage at only one point and when the door is locked the equally thin bar holding the bolts in place is butted directly up against the carriage, providing NO substantial form of defense against leverage attack.

With one simple crowbar the bolts and carriage could buckle and give way.

instead 1/4" bolts and a thin angle bar carry the load!

The sad truth - The build quality of this ineffectual safe design is in no way an exception. This safe is in fact an accurate representation of the construction methods employed by the majority of top selling safes sold today.

Be warned, research before buying or you will likely be housing your precious belongings in a safe very much like this one...or worse.